The Scientist
by The Lady Luthien
Summary: House reflects on a failed relationship over the piano. Not you standard songfic I promise! RR please.


**A/N:** Just something that came to me while I was reading fanfiction and listening to Coldplay….enjoy. It's my first House fanfic so be gentle!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but a sarcastic nature, a soft spot for romance, and Hugh Laurie. Wait, scratch that last bit.

**The Scientist**

He really was a son of a bitch. But, that couldn't be helped really. After all, it ran in the genes. And if anyone was to know something about genetics, or about any medicine at all, it would be House.

Which is why it didn't bother him in the slightest when patient after patient, or over-obsessive mothers and misguided hospital lawyers called him this. Those four words were something he heard regularly and they were always accompanied by that twitch of a grin that was half sarcasm and half grimace.

But, not today. Not when she uttered them with such finality. When her eyes told him that he hadn't just crossed a line. As far as she concerned he had crossed a continent.

It always happened this way between them. And he thought about their troubled relationship as his long fingers moved with such reverence over the black and ivory keys.

'_Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry_

_You don't know how lovely you are_

_I had to find you_

_Tell you I need you_

_Tell you I set you apart'_

When he first told her how he had admired her, she gave him an exasperated look and said, "You sure have a funny way of showing it." He had looked ashamed for a moment, but then gave her the full power of his sad puppy-dog eyes, and apologized with such sincerity that it would have been heartbreaking if she hadn't go out to dinner with him that night.

One dinner turned to several and soon they were a couple. She still thought he needed some discipline, but he gave her a cheeky smile and said, "I never pictured to have a kinky side in between the sheets."

It was comments like those that got him in the most trouble. In fact, it was a comment along those lines that lead to their first big fight. Sure, they bickered all the time, but never like this. He never thought one of his tongue-in-cheek remarks would land him six feet under. She wondered if he was only in this for the physical qualities of the relationship. She mulled over the fact if he knew anything important about her at all. So, he tried to change.

'_Tell me your secrets_

_And ask me your questions_

_Oh, let's go back to the start'_

House soon found out she didn't want him to change. That wasn't the point. That when she fell in love with him, it was as the boy he is, not the man he is trying to be.

'_Running in circles_

_Coming up tails_

_Heads on a silence apart'_

He had a difficult time trying to find a happy medium. It seemed that his sarcastic tendencies often stuck a nerve. Those were the nights he slept on the couch. But, his sensitive side usually one out and a gentle caress of his lips on hers was enough to end a petty disagreement.

'_Nobody said it was easy_

_It's such a shame for us to part_

_Nobody said it was easy_

_No one ever said it would be this hard_

_Oh, take me back to the start'_

He remembered their first kiss. They were walking on the streets together after dinner and his hand reached for hers and their fingers entwined. His steps slowed and he turned her towards him. Her eyes were full of surprise before they fluttered shut at the feel of his fingers stroking her cheek. He pulled back a strand of hair before resting his forehead onto hers. Briefly her eyes opened as she murmured his name very quietly as he began to kiss her forehead and then dip lower. Finally, their lips met and her arms went around his neck as he pulled her closer to him. It was gentle at first, and then things grew more passionate as they let out every suppressed feeling that they had throughout the years. They both knew that first kiss would lead to many more.

'_I was just guessing_

_At numbers and figures_

_Pulling your puzzles apart_

_Questions of science_

_Science and progress_

_Do not speak as loud as my heart'_

For a while, it became difficult for them to get real alone time. They both had high-pressure jobs where they watched people die every day. Most nights, they took solace in each other, comforting each other they only way they knew how. Other days, it was too much to let out, too much to let someone in. It was those nights that her pillow was wet from tears quietly shed. She thought he never knew about those nights. But, across the bed, his eyes were open as his heart broke with every single tear.

'_Tell me you love me_

_Come back and haunt me_

_Oh and I rush to the start_

_Running in circles_

_Chasing our tails_

_Coming back as we are'_

For a while, he had hoped this would be just another stupid fight. He would tell her how much she meant to him, waiting for the 'I love you too' to be uttered, but it was this night that it never came. She had stood there like a stranger, like she didn't even know the broken man before her. He had pleaded-not any easy thing for him to do. It was all to no avail. He darkened the doorway of their bedroom as she put on her coat, took her purse and walked out of his life.

'_Nobody said it was easy_

_It's such a shame for us to part_

_Nobody said it was easy_

_No one ever said it would be so hard'_

He drank for days. He also went through more bottles of Vicodin then ever before. It was Wilson who found him in a drunken stupor wearing the same clothes as he was when she had left him. It was Wilson who removed all the alcohol from the house as he took a shower. And it was Wilson who persuaded him to come back to work.

And that's what made House the son of a bitch he is today. When he sees her it is awkward sidestepping and halfhearted attempts at normalcy. It hurts her too, he can see that.

'_Oh, let's go back to the start'_

But, they wouldn't this time. It was really over and there was nothing either one could do about it. He was now a hardened man and she a married woman. But, tonight, the night she had left him such a long time ago, House remembered.

He took a long swig of his beer, popped a Vicodin into his mouth, and continued to play. He played into the night and thought over his relationship with Stacy one last time.


End file.
